Vol. 18 No. 5 October 2019 ALEXIAD (!7+=3!G) $2.00 September is international month at the library. My branch’s country this year Sheryl Birkhead. 11, 17 is Spain, that land Hemingway loved, and so I have begun studying Spain. At Paul Gadzikowaski. 18 World Market I discover only two things made in Spain, both costing more than Alexis A. Gilliland. 7 I am willing to spend. Japan and India were easier in that regard but I got Trinlay Khadro. 2 attached to the little Japanese rice bowl I bought for the display and selfishly kept Marc Schirmeister.. 5, 12, 13, 15, 16 it. Spain is the first country that I, according to my father’s grandfather, have ancestors from and so has a special interest to me. I am not preparing any The 94th Running of the Hambletonian (1st leg of theTrotting Triple Crown) was August differently than I prepared for Japan or India. Fortunately, I find a pretty little 3, 2019 at Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Forbidden Trade pitcher and saucer set at a thrift store and pay the store a quite reasonable three won. bucks for it. It is a lucky find for me, because at Worldfest I find nothing from The 65th Running of the Yonkers Trot (2nd leg of the Trotting Triple Crown) was August Spain. 31, 2019 at Yonkers Raceway in Yonkers, New York. Gympanzee won. On September 11 I watched the documentaries of 9/11 and I remembered. Joe The 126th Running of the Kentucky Futurity (3rd leg of the Trotting Triple Crown) is calling me and telling me to turn on the TV and the images burned into my brain. October 6, 2019 at the Red Mile in Lexington, Kentucky. Greenshoe won, while The knowing my country was now at war with a savage, ruthless enemy. Gympanzee started well but faded. — Lisa The 65th Running of the Cane Pace (1st leg of the Pacing Triple Crown) was August 3, 2019 at Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Captain Crunch won. Table of Contents The 64th Running of the Messenger Stakes (2nd leg of the Pacing Triple Crown) was Editorial. 1 August 31, 2019 at Yonkers Raceway in Yonkers, New York. American Mercury Reviewer’s Notes. 1 won. The Disappearance of Amy Billig. 2 The 74th Running of the Little Brown Jug (3rd leg of the Pacing Triple Crown) was Dragon Awards. 9 September 19, 2019 at the Delaware County Fair in Delaware, Ohio. Southwind Ozzie Gender and the Hugo Awards. 8 won, after coming in first in the first heat, while American Mercury, who came in Horse News. 6 second in the second heat, came in third. Hugo Awards. 8 Printed on November 17, 2019 The Joy of High Tech.. 7 Deadline is December 1, 2019 On Buying and Not Buying. 7 Sidewise Awards. 10 Reviewer’s Notes Spiders. 6 Worldcon Dates. 10 One of the hardest things to do these days, it seems, is to get up a meeting. If you set it up Book Reviews far in advance, half the attendees have something come up so they can’t make it. Working on JTM West, Codeword Overlord. 6 the fly, as it were, means that no one is available to begin with. JTM Crean O’Brien and Sheppard, Honouring Tom Crean. 4 And I think this is happening to actual physical get-togethers. Local clubs are fading away. JTM Hill, Harry Seven. 3 Fan-run cons are being pushed out by professionally run ones. (We saw this just the other day, JTM Klehr, The Millionaire Was a Soviet Mole. 5 where Imaginarium here had a huge attendance in spite of a bad venue.) JTM Mendlesohn, The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein.. 3 But the professional ones have problems. While Dragon*Con seems to be the new venue JTM Preston, The Lost City of the Monkey God. 4 of choice, what I see are stories of huge mobs being shuffled from one room to another, with JTM Rodgers, Usurper. 4 no interaction. I have referred to this often enough, as the transition from participants to JTM Stanek, How to Kill Hitler. 6 consumers. Con Reports Just as the growing experience of SF is superhero movies. In one sense that is a regression SB 77th Worldcon. 8 to the old pulp ways, with slam-bang action instead of the sort of speculation that the notorious Random Jottings.. 2 editor Astounding Unperson strove for. Next is the latest academic trend, which will become Letters.. 11 passé when it gets outmobbed. Sue Burke, Lloyd Daub, John Hertz, Robert S. Kennedy, Timothy Lane, Lloyd Penney, AL Darrell Schweitzer has observed that we do not come again; there are no longer young du Pisani, George W. Price, John Purcell, Joy V. Smith, Taras Wolansky faneds. In comparatively recent times, you will recall, there were APAs for editors under Comments are by JTM or LTM twenty. These days it seems the entire field is passing away; once upon a time there was an Trivia:.. 17 APA for people on the FAPA waitlist, and it had a waitlist. Now FAPA clings to life. Art: — Joe Page 2 October 2019 Alexiad didn’t mean it.” (WAGB-10), which is 44 years old. (2001) RANDOM JOTTINGS — Not from Star Wars: A Fistful of Credits by Joe On October 4 the German icebreaker RV There are mamas at any Angel The Pursuit of the Pankera (NHOL Polarstern began its year-long drift in the gathering, large or small. They travel G.183), the new title of the original version of Arctic ice pack. The ship sailed from Tromsø as part of the troupe, like oxpeckers, The Number of the Beast (NHOL G.189), is accompanied by the Russian icebreaker fully understanding what's expected: having publication problems and the release Akademik Feodorov, through the Northeast they are available at any time, in any date has been pushed back to Spring/Summer Passage. The drift will begin at 83E North way, to any Angel, friend or favored 2020. There are editing problems with the 137E East, in the Lapatev Sea north of Siberia. guest — individually or otherwise. manuscript, due to the manner in which it has It is estimated that the ship will exit the pack They also understand that the minute been created (from a number of varying in September of 2020, in the Fram Strait be- they don't like the arrangement they drafts). tween Svalbard and Greenland. can leave. Most hang around for a few The ebook edition is tentatively priced at The expedition, known as MOSAiC months, then drift on to something else. $9.99, but there is a Kickstarter to fund pre- (Multidisciplianary drifting Observatory for A few have been around for years, but liminary costs and subscribers to that will be the Study of Arctic Climate), will have about this kind of dedication requires an able to buy the ebook for $7.00. 600 researchers from nineteen countries (pre- almost preterhuman tolerance for abuse sumably shuttling in and out) studying the and humiliation. Scott Christian Sava has rebooted The polar ice and the climate of the Arctic. It is led The term mama is all that remains Buy my books. (All available on Dreamland Chronicles, this time with hand- by the German Wegener Institute, named for of the original expression “Let's go Amazon.com for quite reasonable prices, drawn art. Book One of the original run was the propounder of continental drift, who died make somebody a mama,” which was except the Hugo-nominated Heinlein’s Chil- reviewed in Alexiad V. 6 #5. during an expedition to Greenland. later shortened to “Let's go make a dren, which can be bought from NESFA for a Not far away, Polar trekkers Børge Ous- mama.” Other fraternities have differ- reasonable price.) http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com land and Mike Horn have begun their own ent ways of saying it, but the meaning traverse of the Arctic Ocean, hoping to set a is the same — a girl who’s always https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01BMIC4MU Hugh Lupus continues his story of a diff- record for a winter traverse. They too hope to available. A widely quoted section of ?ref_=pe_1724030_132998070 erent World War II in An Extra Knot: Part III meet up with their support ship Pangaea in the the Lynch report says these girls are — Advt. (2019; $4.99) and An Extra Knot: Part IV Fram Strait, sometime around the New Year. called sheep, but I have never heard an (2019; $3.99). He continues to personalize the Angel use that word. It sounds like the Operation Flash: Episode 2: Hinges of war, with for example tales of the death of a We regret to report the death of Alexei creation of some police inspector with Fate, the sequel to Operation Flash: Episode salamander at Gibraltar. The style of many Arkhipovich Leonov on October 11, 2019 in intensely rural memories. 1: Knight’s Gambit Accepted: by Nitay Arbel short paragraphs may be a bit offputting, and Moscow. Born May 30, 1934 in Listvyanka, The mamas aren’t pretty, although (2019; reviewed in Alexiad V. 18 #3) is now they all seem stuck in Spain for now. West Siberian Krai, RSFSR, USSR, Leonov some of the newer and younger ones out (2019; One Music as Before Press; Ama- It is an imaginative alternate history and was commissioned in the Soviet Air Force in have a sort of demented beauty that zon Digital Services; $0.99). The situation in one that deviates from the all too common 1957.